By Ella Franzman – Sports Editor

Jonathan Law’s SAVE Promise Club recently put together a week of different activities to show support for National Youth Violence Prevention Week. Club members appeared on Eagle Eye News each day from April 24-28 to announce the day’s theme and the club also sold SAVE Promise T-shirts to show support towards NYVPW. Advocate Sports Editor Ella Franzman asked club President Aislinn Burns about NYVPW. 

Ella Franzman: What went into planning National Youth Violence Prevention Week?

Aislinn Burns: As a club, we planned National Youth Violence Prevention Week together. Our ideas committee came up with the activities and names for each day, our fundraising committee took care of our fundraiser shirts & design and our social media committee took care of the graphics.

EF: How did you plan what each day of the week would look like?

AB: We planned each day of the week by first looking at the message we wanted to send to the school community but also at what our students needed. We had two days focused on self-care/de-stressing because of AP exams, and we had other easy awareness activities like the ribbons as a visual representation of how important violence prevention is.

EF: What day were you looking forward to this week?

AB: The day I was most looking forward to was Statistic Tuesday as another member on the Youth Advisory Board did it at their school and when I heard about it, it was such an easy yet effective activity. I think the visual representation of the statistics of Americans impacted by violence was much more powerful and moving.

EF: What is the idea behind National Youth Violence Prevention Week, what do students learn from it?

AB: The idea behind National Youth Violence Prevention Week is a time for youth to lead communities on strategies to prevent violence. Each day is either a challenge for the community or an activity to help students become more confident in being an advocate for themselves/others. Students learn how important and powerful their voice is as well as how necessary it is to focus on preventing violence.

EF: Where will the money from the T-shirts go and who will benefit from it?

AB: The money from the t-shirts goes to our club as it was our club fundraiser and it is used in many ways. One of the biggest things is helping get our members to leadership conventions like the one earlier this year, but it also allows us to buy materials so we can do more activities for the school.